Sharks roundup: Niemi’s big save at the start, those 121 hits, and how players dealt with the power outage

No shortage of topics to pursue on this extra day between games, but I focused on Antti Niemi’s performance right out of the chute for the Saturday print edition. To my mind, that first save on Jeff Carter let both the bench and the fan base know that Niemi was on his game just 18 seconds after the opening faceoff, so the story starts there.

My colleague Curtis Pashelka focused on the physical nature of Game 1, the ridiculous 121 hits registered, 69 for the Kings, 52 for the Sharks. Yes, any hit count is suspect, but San Jose has never had a reputation as one of the buildings where the off-ice officials are particularly generous (You know who you are, Dallas) or stingy (Hello, New Jersey). His print edition notebook is available online here .

The heaviest hitters? Two Kings had top honors – Anze Kopitar with nine and Dustin Brown with eight. Torres, not surprisingly, led the Sharks with seven while Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns had six each.

So how did Torres feel today after his first game since March 8?

“I feel as good as I can feel right now,” he said. “It was a pretty physical game last night, but overall I feel pretty good. I got a good night’s sleep, surprisingly. Just a light day today, go and get a good sweat and prepare for tomorrow then for Sunday.”

****That fourth line of Raffi Torres-Andrew Desjardins-Mike Brown stirred the pot in Game 1 and McLellan seemed inclined to keep the unit together for Game 2 after being asked if it would be tough to break that line up.

“There’s no talk of breaking it up yet or at all. We like what they did,” he said. “Every night is a new night, depending on what they do with the lineup, what we do with the lineup. Anything is possible. After Game 1, we like what they did.”

The game was only the second time the three players skated on the same line, the first being Feb. 27 against the Philadelphia Flyers in the first game after the Olympic break and Torres’s first of the season

****That notebook also includes an item on the strange start to the evening, the power outage just before 7 p.m. that delayed warm-ups. When they eventually began about 10 minutes later than usual, the sound system wasn’t working yet so things were eerily quiet. Those of us in the press box rather enjoyed it, but it turns out the players had a problem with it.

No reason for the outage has been given yet, but Vlasic said Tommy Wingels might have had something to do with it. The team had been scheduled to skate from the usual 7 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. even though TV requirements meant a 7:45 p.m. faceoff instead of the usual 7:38 p.m.

“Wingels said about 20 minutes before that, ‘why do we have to wait about 27 minutes between the warm-up and the game? Might as well push warm-up back.’ Maybe he had something to do with it. He was happy.’’

As it turned out, enough power was restored by 7:10 p.m. that players skate, so Wingels got his wish, almost down to the minute.

Tomas Hertl was another player who missed the music.

Asked if he sang to himself as he skated, he admitted, “A little bit.”

What song?

“I like it. I don’t know the name of the song. It’s go out on the ice, it’s every game same song.”

That would be Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.”

Todd McLellan found a couple reasons to be upset with the power outage on a couple levels. Some of that’s in the Sharks notebook, but here’s the full response:

“The group was ready to go out, standing and ready to walk out for warmup, basically. It’s not a comfortable situation. Skates are tight, minds are already set, and all of a sudden things change,” he said. “It might sound strange but I had a concern about the energy in the building, because when you get out for warmup and have got music going, and the energy is building and building, all of a sudden it wasn’t there. I was concerned that would play into LA’s favor. We managed it well.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

What he’s saying is Marty and his game don’t match-up well against LA. And he’s right. There’s no shame in that. Pretty much the reason he’s been a healthy scratch by TMac thus far. Like I said, he’ll probably get some ice time when the series shifts back to LA. Let’s hope he performs better than the last few times he played against them, which hasn’t been difference-making, to say the least. The career .77 ppg, you’re cherry-picking, has been fools gold.

renoshark

“Sheppard is a much better winger than he is a center, and that’s another glaring issue that can be solved by moving Pavs to 3c.”

Umm, no he isn’t.

sharks1989

of course lol. Love the Sharks.

sharks1989

and I have to stream lol

Huh?

JR & Liam last night, one of them said that it would be a phone call, not in person hearing, and said that means a max of 5 games. Not a repeat offender, etc. We’ll see. Losing a Seabrook for 5 would be a hit on anyones roster. Deserves at least what Raffi got last year, so we’ll see.

Huh?

Where are you? I lost my time zone chart.

Angel From Texas

Where are you from? Since there’s that big of a time diffrence.

Ronn Sven

Law & Order? Never have watched it. What happened to the video?

Huh?

Asked and answered is a standard cliche for tv courtroom scenes. Since the video Reno posted was removed, just say my point was to watch the 1st period of game 1 and that’s the answer to the Sharks physical style. To spell it out, YES.

GP_hockeyhappens

i don’t think he comes back, not part of a build in place progression.

Wonderogre

He came back this year when he shouldn’t have, so I’m not holding my breath.

GP_hockeyhappens

I understand the skepticism on that.

My thought/guess is DW will decide the D core needs to get younger and/or faster and maybe more high-profile. That is where my thought on Demers involved in a trade comes from.

Hannan will have even less offensive upside than he does now.

Wonderogre

Honestly I thought maybe they’re bringing back Hannan to cover for injury in case Tennyson needs to step in and they need a warm body in the pressbox. Fool me once…

Z.SharkRA

Havlat will be a good ace in the hole later on down the line…

Ronn Sven

You bet I did watch that most impressive 1st period. I hope you are right! But,I am not as convinced as you are that they can CONSISTENTLY keep up game after game, the physical grinding play needed.Even Jeremy Roenick agrees with your opinion about the sharks physical play for the playoffs, however he did say they need to prove it!

GP_hockeyhappens

Basically, that’s what happened in the season wasn’t it?

Hannan filled in early for Stuart, then Demers and Boyle during the season whether that was the plan or not. Hannan actually did an admiral job. When all D were healthy, I don’t think he was a healthy scratch for too many games.

I don’t think any D that came up played did they?

TheDrkBlu

We’re talking about Brent Burns right? The one who’s a recently converted top 4 defenseman and all ’round possession monster? Yeah, not sure how to respond to that.

Beer League Rocks

You are correct, they brought D up but they never played. They’ve only used 7 d all season. Pretty lucky, lets hope they all remain healthy for a long playoff run.

That may be true. Many of today’s “climate scientists” that get all the grants, aren’t using real science.

Any real facts and stats, while some may exist, they generally don’t prove anything. Tomorrows weather — who makes it?

The next hockey game, who plays it? Statistics?

renoshark

It’s not shocking I guess that someone, who still believes Havlat is still a .70 ppg playoff performer, is having a difficult time objectively evaluating every other player on the Sharks roster.

Wonderogre

Oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t realize every top-4 d-man was great at defending. Someone should inform the Oilers. If you honestly think Burns was a top-4 d-man because of his defensive ability, and that as a forward he’s particularly defensively responsible (possession monster not-withstanding – when he has to defend, he’s not particularly good at it), then truly I am not sure how to respond to *that*.

TheDrkBlu

Really? Coming from someone who obviously does not understand stats at all?

I’ll leave you now to worship at the altar of Mike Brown while you can.

renoshark

Your major weakness is getting too wrapped up in box score analysis and not actually watching the on-ice product. At some point you’ll need to take off your Havlat footie pajamas and realize your myopic view of anyone other than #9 is doing you a disservice.

TheDrkBlu

That’s ridiculous. First of all, I actually grew up in Canada and have been watching and playing hockey since I was a kid. Second of all, I do watch the games. Do you really think a casual fan who checks the box score once in a while would waste their time delving into hockey sabermetrics?

If you read my posts I probably have spent as much time advocating for Pavs to be moved down to 3c (which TMac did, about a minute before SJ started their comeback), My only interest in seeing Havlat in the lineup is because even a Havlat that scores at a 0.5 ppg pace (as he has with SJ) is ultimately more useful helping the team win than Mike Brown. I’ve also said in another post that with Nieto playing the way he has on the 2nd line, slotting in Kennedy on the 4th would also be a good idea.

The first two games Brown has been in the right place at the right time and got a couple of points, a casual fan buys into the narrative that Brown is a guy who’s upped his game for the playoffs. A fan who looks at the underlying numbers will know that there’s no way Brown can come close to maintaining a ppg pace and from looking at shot metrics understands that over the course of a playoff run, having Brown in the lineup will be detrimental to the teams success.

GP_hockeyhappens

“A fan who looks at the underlying numbers will know that there’s no way Brown can come close to maintaining a ppg pace and from looking at shot metrics understands that over the course of a playoff run, having Brown in the lineup will be detrimental to the teams success.”

Do you know how easy that is to say? It’s a straw man argument. Especially to say that about Mike Brown, a guy that doesn’t doesn’t have a job to score a point (or .5 pts) per game.

You also had said something to the effect that Sharks wouldn’t be able to score that many goals vs the Kings again. In one sense you were right. Sharks scored more goals. Based on stats, how in the world did that ever happen? Was it hockeynut’s “relying on lucky bounces?” If you watched the game, the answer is no way.

And so far, just watching the impact on the game he and his line has had so far is “instrumental” in the teams success so far.

Go ahead and predict again how the games will play out. I grew up watching and playing the game in the northeast, so I know a little about hockey too. It’s just not Canada’s game. So that doesn’t ordain credibility. I know enough that even if I looked over stats and trusted what they tell me about the last game or set of games, they tell me so little about what will happen next. I logically cannot predict…

Tom (fm Quinzee)

I’ve read your posts – most of them are about computer games. That’s essentially telling me that if you’re an adult, that’s either your profession or you are reality-challenged.

But you have never answered Huh?’s question, i.e., are you Havlat’s agent? All of your hockey-related posts are advocating Havlat. Or do you have money riding on him in a fantasy league? Also a sign of reality-challenged, btw.

TheDrkBlu

I can’t say that I’m shocked. You believe science is voodoo magic after all.

Advanced stats in hockey can’t give 100% answers about which team is going to win on any given night, they’re simply a tool to objectively analyze team/player performance minus the subjective bias that comes from just “watching the game”. It’s easy to remember a good play that leads to a goal or a bad play that leads to a goal against, it’s not so easy to remember everything else that happens inbetween.

But since you went there….you appear to believe that voodoo magic is science. I got an idea, let’s place more thermometers right next to that mirrored window in that is 2 feet away from the building heating vents….then we’ll measure what real temperature is….that’s a great science method.

Now, you really need to get Brown a #99 jersey and pay him 7M a season and we’ll start expecting him to score 30-40 goals a season. Deal?

renoshark

“If you read my posts I probably have spent as much time advocating for Pavs to be moved down to 3c (which TMac did, about a minute before SJ started their comeback), My only interest in seeing Havlat in the lineup is because even a Havlat that scores at a 0.5 ppg pace (as he has with SJ) is ultimately more useful helping the team win than Mike Brown.”

And I’ve said repeatedly we’re in agreement, for the most part, on where to, ideally, slot Havlat(i.e. w/39-12) except for the fact I’d leave Nieto there for now. We also agree Pavs should center the 3rd line which is something I’ve been asking we do before the playoffs started. Glad he finally ended up there last night.

The problem you seem to have is with TMac’s 4th. He clearly wants energy, agitators, physicality, puck chasers and speed. Right now that recipe is working very well against LA. It would be ridiculous to break up something working as well as it is. And for what’s being asked of
them, and what TMac expects of them, it’s a style of play not suited to Marty Havlat. That’s why he’s been scratched the whole time. Something I don’t disagree with at the moment.

TheDrkBlu

I didn’t answer the question because it wasn’t worth answering.

And if you’ve read my posts I’ve also advocated for moving Pavelski to 3c, Hertl to the top line, Sheppard to wing, Irwin as a replacement for one of Stuart or Hannan as well as Kennedy in over Brown as another viable option.

You resorting to personal attacks tell me everything I need to know about you. I find it laughable that you accuse me of being “reality challenged” especially since I’m the only one here making arguments based on objective data vs subjective narratives. You might want to try learning about that, then maybe next time you feel the need to jump into a conversation you’ll have more than petty insults to throw around.

TheDrkBlu

I’ve said a few times now that Kennedy would also be a better fit on the 4th line.

And you’re right, my main problem is with the 4th line. From my point of view, SJ has the personnel to ice a forward corp that would be a pretty good imitation of Team Canada in that SJ can roll 4 solid scoring lines that are also sound defensively.

While the 4th line did make a couple of solid plays that lead to goals last night they also had terrible possession numbers. If it were just a one time thing than it wouldn’t be anything to worry about, but with Brown, negative possession stats while making his linemate’s worse is the norm. The odds of that line ending up in the red are a lot higher than the odds of them continuing their current hot streak. But hey, stranger things have happened…maybe Brown will end up being that 3rd/4th line guy that gets hot right in time for the playoffs, who knows.

Phat Stat Phil

I don’t even want to begin to go into all the crap after this comment, but for what it’s worth, I think your analysis is far more valid than the regulars around here are giving you crap for.

I think there’s more value to Brown than you let on and that you undervalue Stuart, but Havlat really deserves a lot more respect than most of the fans around here give him.

Paul

Whos around now? Cant find the info anywhere.

Phat Stat Phil

The best info I have right now is that Kearns, Tennyson, and Sateri are the only ones up.

TheDrkBlu

Yeah, I should have paid attention when someone warned me that analytics wasn’t a welcome subject around here. Oh well.

Phat Stat Phil

Ehh, don’t listen to them. Lots of people used to complain when I started posting here, but I earned a reputation for being able to answer stat-based questions.

That willingness to slog through questions changed attitudes towards my posts from Neanderthal to at least Cro-Magnon in virtually all cases.

Plus, I learned stuff in the process. Win-win, right?

If I might offer some advice from my experience, limit your responses to specific people. If they don’t like the points you’re making, then that’s fine: they have a right to be wrong.

Every time you explain something to them, you’re sacrificing your time to offer them the choice to start being right or continue being wrong.

If they keep choosing to be wrong, there’s a point where the expected value of any future decision is going to lean so far towards the status quo as to make it a waste of your time trying to convince them.

In my experience, I’ve found Wonderogre, GP, MLBSF, Matthew, and hockeynut to be sufficiently irrational that I just ignore them. Maybe your set of people to ignore is the same as mine. Maybe it’s not. I’d recommend you make your own list and keep at it. Every single time I’ve gone back on my decision to ignore someone, I’ve regretted it.

Plus side: if you get good enough at ignoring them, it seems like the whole board is full of entertaining, intelligent people who are every bit as interested in learning more about this crazy sport as you are.

Anyway, keep fighting the good fight. 8)

Paul

Good enough.. thank you

Paul

Tsn, sharks roster has the list of guys up. There’s about 12 guys that got the call.